Yolanda KakabadsePresident
WWF International

Yolanda Kakabadse was born in Ecuador in 1948. She studied Educational Psychology at the Catholic University of Quito. Her involvement with the environmental conservation movement officially began in 1979, when she was appointed Executive Director of Fundación Natura in Quito, where she worked until 1990. Ms. Kakabadse helped Fundación Natura become one of Latin America’s most important environmental organizations through the development of important processes for Ecuadorian society and the international community in the areas of environmental education to the proposal of development policies. In August 1998 she was appointed Minister of Environment for the Republic of Ecuador, position she held until January 2000. During 2001 she was a visiting professor at Yale’s School of Forestry and Environment, USA.

From 1990-1992, Ms. Kakabadse coordinated in Geneva, Switzerland, the participation of civil society organizations for the United Nations Conference for Environment and Development (Earth Summit).

In 1993 she created Fundacion Futuro Latinoamericano and was its Executive President until 2006. She is presently the Chair of the Advisory Board of this organization dedicated to promote sustainable development in Latin America through conflict prevention and management.

She was President of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) from 1996 – 2004, a board member of the World Resources Institute (WRI) during the same period and is President of WWF International from January 1, 2010.